News from Chinese state television is shown in a restaurant in Beijing, reporting on the military exercise off Taiwan,
(Photo: Reuters)
Beijing/Taipei During its military maneuvers around Taiwan, China has practiced blockading the island, which it claims as its own territory, with ships and planes. On the third and planned last day of the exercise, several warplanes were deployed in the Taiwan Strait, Chinese state media reported on Monday.
Military exercises have also taken place northwest, southwest and in the waters east of Taiwan. The aircraft carrier Shandong was also involved, the Chinese military said. According to the government in Tokyo, the “Shandong” was in waters off the Okinawa Islands in southern Japan. Okinawa, the largest of these islands, is an important US Air Force base.
Chinese state television reported that planes and warships held drills aimed at a comprehensive lockdown of Taiwan from multiple directions. Attacks were simulated.
Already on Sunday, the military had simulated precision attacks on important targets on Taiwan itself and in the surrounding waters.
The Taiwan Defense Ministry said a total of 59 warplanes and 11 ships had been spotted around Taiwan as of Monday morning. 39 warplanes crossed the center line of the Taiwan Straits and entered Taiwan’s air defense zones. The center line of the busy shipping lane is considered the unofficial border between China and Taiwan.
China increases pressure on Taiwan
The Japanese Ministry of Defense said fighter planes and helicopters took off and landed from the Shandong 120 times between Friday and Sunday. The aircraft carrier, together with three other warships and an auxiliary ship, came within 230 kilometers of the island of Miyako, which belongs to Okinawa Prefecture.
Japan is following China’s maneuvers around Taiwan with great interest, a government spokesman said. The United States has also said it is monitoring the maneuver very closely.
During a Chinese military exercise, precision attacks on important targets on Taiwan and in the surrounding waters were simulated.
(Photo: via REUTERS)
In the past three years, China has increased its military pressure on the democratically governed and industrially well-developed Taiwan. The People’s Republic has never refrained from using force to take control of Taiwan. The three-day maneuver began on Saturday, the day after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a trip to the United States. It comes amid tensions between China and Taiwan and its supporter, the United States.
Tsai’s US trip, during which she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, has incensed the government in Beijing. Tsai also received a delegation of US lawmakers in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, on Saturday.
The status of the democratically governed Taiwan, which is only recognized as independent by a few, mostly small, countries, is one of the main points of conflict between the USA and China. Like many other countries, the USA does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan out of consideration for the People’s Republic of China; they severed them in favor of China in 1979. However, the USA supports the country with military equipment and is its most important supplier of armaments.
US destroyer USS Milius cruises off Spratly Islands
Amid mounting tensions, the American guided missile destroyer USS Milius completed a mission near the Spratly Islands’ Mischief Atoll on Monday. As the 7th US Fleet announced, the US warship stood up for freedom of navigation in the sea area claimed by China and other countries. The “USS Milius” then left the area again.
The reef is in its natural state flooded with water and therefore does not allow any territorial claims under the Convention on the Law of the Sea, the statement said. China’s land reclamation and the built facilities did not change that. “Illegal and far-reaching claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas, including freedom of navigation and overflight, free trade and unhindered business.”
China claims almost all of the South China Sea and has built artificial islands to support its claims. This also applies to strategically important and resource-rich areas that countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines claim as their own. The United States and China’s neighbors accuse Beijing of increasing militarization of the region. The International Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejected the Chinese territorial claims in 2016. However, China ignores the verdict.
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